Private Club Payroll & HR Essentials

ClubPay's blog will provide timely thought provoking articles that position you to respond confidently to the unique challenges faced in today's employment market. We will provide you with important information and perspectives on how to protect your club, build your team and retain your best staff.

Your success begins with your Club’s recruitment effort. In order to gain a competitive advantage and maximum return on your payroll investment, you must hire the “best” not the “best you can find”. In today’s employment market, to reach qualified Generation X & Millennial candidates, you have to meet them where they hang out – on the web. Be sure to develop an overall strategy though, just placing traditional ads on an expensive job board will most likely do nothing but increase your recruitment costs. Take some time to write out positions in a language your target audience recognizes.

The best way to ensure good hires is to build an automated recruitment and hiring process that consistently yields qualified candidates. In this case, you are looking for a high quantity, of high quality applicants in order to make the best possible hire. By including a custom career site page on your Club website, you can showcase the Club’s work environment, job openings, share the positives about working at your Club, and attract those high quality candidates to apply online. Be sure to include information about your Club's employee benefit offerings and culture – these things matter to today’s workforce!

To make certain your Club isn't missing those good hire opportunities, examine your current processes. How do you manage your applicants? Are applications and resumes stuck in a file folder and haphazardly passed down to the department heads? How do you screen your applicants? Do you ask them qualifying questions? Do you run background checks? When a potential employee visits your site to view current openings, do you capture his or her email address and keep them updated with your latest job postings?

Hiring the best is really no more complicated than hiring the best you can find. The difference is having systems in place. With web-based hiring and application management systems, Club’s can easily streamline their recruitment and hiring processes to be current and compliant with employment regulatory laws. An online applicant management system builds a custom career site, online application process, searchable database of all applicants, keeps potential candidates up to date with current openings, and then routes applications to the designated hiring manager.

Every detail of the job application process is digitally captured and available to report and electronically track. Imagine being able to quickly review last season’s server applications at the beginning of this season. Filter through multiple applications by targeted reports based on qualifying screening questions to avoid pointless interviews with unqualified applicants.

See how ourClubApplicant Hiring and Application Management System increases the number of qualified candidates with online employment applications and job-based screening questions. Plus, overall recruitment costs and “time to hire” processes are reduced by pushing job postings out to online job boards, and automatic transfer of applicants demographic information to an "employee" for new hire processing in ClubPay’s Payroll/HR & Time systems.

Recently, we hosted a couple ClubPay Client Success webinar presentations to share how our recent reporting enhancements can be utilized to easily comply with upcoming ACA requirements; plus we addressed the most Frequently Asked Questions our Client Service Team has received from Clubs regarding common compliance concerns. To help ensure awareness of this information for our ClubPay Outsourced Payroll/HR Clients, we invite you to download the summaries of our recentClient Success Webinar Discussions Here.

To see how ClubPay's outsourced Payroll & HR Solutions can help your Club navigate through Affordable Care Act Compliance Procedures, contact us for a complimentary analysis.

Clubs subject to ACA's shared employer responsibility need to begin accurately collecting coverage data in 2015 to comply with additional ACA reporting requirements in first quarter 2016. The Employer Mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act requires all employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees to offer a certain level of health insurance coverage at an affordable rate to all full-time employees or face a possible penalty.

It’s important to note that the IRS will only apply Employer Mandate penalties to an organization if the employer is subject to the Employer Mandate, fails to comply with the Mandate, and has at least one full-time employee shop in the Marketplace and receive a federal premium subsidy. Employers have no control regarding whether a full-time employee opts to shop in the Marketplace, so the only fool-proof way to avoid penalties is to follow these three steps:

Offer at least one such plan to all full-time employees regularly working 30 or more hours per week and their dependent children.

If you follow these three steps, your organization will be immunized from any type of Employer Mandate Penalties, regardless of which employees opt to shop in the Marketplace or what types of premium subsidies they receive.

Employer Mandate penalties are incurred on a monthly basis, but paid annually. Large employers (those with 100 or more full-time equivalent employees) that do not comply with the Employer Mandate may begin incurring penalties in each month of the 2015 tax year. Midsized employers (those with 50-99 full-time equivalent employees) enjoy an additional year of reprieve (to 2016) as long as the organization did not reduce its workers’ hours/workforce to get below the 99 employee threshold without good reason or materially reduce its health care plan as it existed on February 9, 2014.

With the implementation of the Employer Mandate new IRS reporting requirements arise. Employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees must begin Section 6056 (Employer Mandate) reporting for the 2015 tax year. These forms will be filed with the IRS and provided to employees in early 2016. Although the actual reporting will not be performed until early 2016, some of the data included in the reporting must be classified by month. So now is the time to begin tracking this data.

Employers subject to the reporting requirements must complete and submit one Transmittal Form (IRS Form 1094-C) for the organization and one Employee Statement (IRS Form 1095-C) for each employee. Employers that sponsor a self-funded health plan have additional reporting requirements.

Recently, we hosted a couple ClubPay Client Success webinar presentations to share how our recent reporting enhancements can be utilized to easily comply with upcoming ACA requirements; plus we addressed the most Frequently Asked Questions our Client Service Team has received from Clubs regarding common compliance concerns. To help ensure awareness of this information for our ClubPay Outsourced Payroll/HR Clients, we invite you to download the summaries of our recent Client Success Webinar Discussions Here.

To see how ClubPay's outsourced Payroll & HR Solutions can help your Club navigate through Affordable Care Act Compliance Procedures, contact us for a complimentary analysis.

Part 2: 8 Ways to Foster Best Staff and Showcase your Club’s Work Culture

In part one of this two part article post we covered a few club-specific policy considerations for your Employee Handbook to help protect your club’s reputation and liability. Today, in part two we will share 8 ways your Club Employee Handbook can help motivate your team, retain your best staff, ensure compliance, and how these aspects work to promote your club’s culture and reputation for excellence.

1) Introduction to your Club’s Culture, Mission, and Values: The introduction is perhaps the most important aspect of your Employee Handbook as a way to help new employees understand your club culture and how they will fit in. Your introduction should help foster a sense of pride and belonging; studies show this helps employees become more productive in a shorter period of time. The introductions section of an Employee Handbook will answer these questions: “What do we do that sets us apart?” “History of the Club’s origin, mission, and values your team is passionate about.” Plus express, “How can I, as a new hire, become a part of this culture?” The introduction section sets the standard for the employment relationship in general, and provides a guidepost for the remaining policies communicated in the handbook.

2) What Your Club Expects of Employees: A well-written handbook communicates to employees a clear understanding of their responsibilities and expectations. Your handbook should serve as a compass of the club’s policies and procedures. For example, advise employees what the procedures are for requesting time off, whom they should contact when they have an unscheduled absence, and what the timing should be. It should also let them know who to go to if they have questions about any of the specific policies in the handbook. By providing clear, accessible information about an employee’s general responsibilities regarding safety, timekeeping, reporting, and so on, will help ensure your staff continues moving in the right direction.

3) What Your Employees Can Expect From Club Management and Leadership: An employee handbook clarifies club objectives and leadership styles, as well as management best practices, to foster healthy management-employee relationships. It also outlines logistics, such as timekeeping requirements, hours of work, pay periods, and so on. Further, a complete employee handbook advises employees of their various entitlements to federal and state leaves, such as FMLA or Jury Service Leave. These clearly communicated policies help to eliminate confusion and inconsistencies that result when handbooks are silent on these topics.

4) Clearly Communicate Key Policies Your Club Follows: No policy is effective if it is practiced inconsistently. A handbook will accurately communicate your club’s policies regarding employment, conduct and behavior, compensation, and other policies and procedures your club follows. Most importantly, managers can refer to the handbook when answering questions or making decisions regarding your policies, and ensure their actions are consistent with your policies and best practices.

5) Showcase the Benefits of Working at Your Club: Many clubs offer robust benefits package to help retain and attract the best and brightest employees, so be sure they know about your full suite of offerings by communicating these in the handbook. Does your club offer vacations, 401k, health insurance, paid parental leave, or other benefits to employees? Make sure they know about these policies and the eligibility requirements by communicating them in the handbook.

6) Ensure Compliance with Federal and State Laws: No matter what state you’re in, or how many employees you have, you are subject to state and federal employment laws. Your club’s handbook not only communicates these various entitlements and obligations to employees, but is useful in demonstrating that your club strives to be compliant with these regulations. For example, if your employee is called away to active-duty military service, you will want to be sure they understand their rights and obligations when reporting this leave time to you. Your Military Leave Policy should clearly define these parameters to the employee. Other similar government mandate policies should be defined as well, such as state disability leave, federal FMLA leave, etc…

7) Defend Your Club Against Employee Claims: Unfortunately, employers should consider it a matter of when, and not if, they will face a lawsuit or similar challenge from a current or former employee. When this happens, one of the most useful documents you can provide your attorney or third party investigator will be a copy of your handbook. A thorough and compliant employee handbook will help to show that the club has exercised “reasonable care” towards its employees. The employee’s signed acknowledgement page will show that the employee had an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the club’s policies, a chance to ask related questions, knew who they could turn to for help at the club, and agreed to follow the terms and conditions of employment set forth by the club.

8) Let Employees Know Where to Turn for Help: Ultimately, you want employees to feel comfortable turning to a trusted member of management for help when they want to report workplace violations, obtain workplace-related assistance, and find answers to any other questions they may have. The alternative is for them to turn to an outside third party, like the EEOC or DOL, which could trigger a costly and time-consuming investigation. When a handbook not only outlines one or two management individuals for an employee to turn to in these situations, but also designates another individual to turn to in the event the employee disagrees with the first decision, they are more likely to keep their complaints in-house, and this is a good thing for employers.

Unlike other work environments, clubs cannot afford to train ever-changing service staff; they must seek ways to attract and keep their best employees motivated for longevity to make the most of their labor investment. This mindset is even more important due to the rise of Millennials in today’s workforce, which studies show they value being a part of a “work family” that engenders loyalty, trust in leadership, provides benefit packages, professional development opportunities, and ultimately offers a sense of accomplishment. For them, work isn’t just about income, and they are much less willing to endure unpleasant conditions on the job. Approximately 46% of the US workforce will be comprised of this generation by 2020; unlike preceding generations, Millennials were raised with a lot of structure, consistent coaching or feedback, instant access to information, and are accustomed to understanding precisely how they are to be assessed.

By integrating these 8 aspects into a well-written, clearly defined Employee Handbook will not only help to protect your club from possible litigation and lax behavior around your club’s policy standards, but should also help your employees feel secure in knowing exactly what is expected of them to succeed, and bolster a sense of pride to be a part of your exceptional organization. Practice reviewing your Club Employee Handbook annually; let it serve as a motivational tool for current employees by way of reminding them of all the wonderful benefits they receive from being a member on your team, and it should clearly define what’s expected to be a member of your club's staff. Most people want to be a part of an organization they can be proud of, when they are, they will brag about the benefits to others, and when others see employees who are enthusiastic about their work place, often they ask, “Are you hiring?”

The Employer Mandate is here, and ClubPay is ready to help you comply with ease. Announcing our New Standard ACA Report: Section 6056 Form 1095-C Employer Audit Report

After controversy, debate, and delays, the Employer Mandate has arrived. Employers subject to ACA’s shared responsibility need to begin accurately collecting coverage data in 2015 to comply with additional ACA reporting requirements in first quarter 2016. ClubPay is here to help; we have launched new tools, and standard reports to easily track required field items for the new reporting requirements of the Federal Tax Code Section 6056.

Join us for our upcoming webinar demonstration to see how ClubPay handles one of the most fretted-over employer mandate requirements for Affordable Care Act, the tracking and reporting for the newly required Employer Audit Report.

Part 1: Interpersonal Relationships Policy between Club Staff and the Membership

Building member relationships is the cornerstone of success for private club operations and one of the most important aspects to attain consistent, quality relationships is by retaining your best staff for many years. Perhaps the most important tool to foster your employees and help assure your club culture is not compromised by complacency in standards of conduct is your Employee Handbook. We will share some “should haves” in your Employee Handbook to help promote your club culture, develop confident, productive employees, and inspire pride within your staff to be a part of your exceptional organization. Plus, we will offer advice on some club-specific policies regarding employee and member relationships.

Unlike other work environments, quality private club operations must hire people who have excellent service skills and are able to develop positive relationships with the membership; members warrant personal greetings, anticipated service, and feel they are amongst friends. Therefore, to fulfill members’ expectations, clubs cannot afford to train ever-changing service staff; they must seek ways to keep their best employees motivated for longevity to make the most of their labor investment. However, over time, long-term employees may become complacent adhering to club policy standards and blurred lines can be crossed, especially if there is a grey area around the development of personal relationships with the membership.

Over the past week, in speaking with several private club operation leaders about the advantages of retaining their long-time employees, I also heard various concerns about how to handle delicate situations when employees become too comfortable in having interpersonal relationships with members. Initially this article was planned to be a simple checklist of “should have” items in your Club Employee Handbook to help bolster your club’s reputation, improve employee morale, and ensure compliance with Federal and State Laws. As a result, of the stories shared specifically about lax conduct amongst popular, long-term employees, and the diversity in how each club handles policy enforcement, I felt the need to give this particular area for clubs further attention, so this article post is part one of a two-part series. Next week we will share part two, which will include the complete check list of “should have” items in your Club Employee Handbook to help motivate your team and why.

Here we will cover policies your private club should consider to help protect your club’s reputation and liability. Wish we could go through all the recommended policies in detail, but when speaking with ClubPay’s HR Business Partner, Clare Vasquez, for advice she stated, “A book could be written of policies specific to private club operations to help limit conduct issues possibly causing harm to a club’s reputation and wellbeing”. At this point we have no plans of publishing a book, but would like to share items our HR Professionals address first when reviewing our clients’ Club Employee Handbooks.

What exactly does your club consider an appropriate or inappropriate relationship with a member? This is not a simple question to answer; there is the obvious inappropriate relationship, we’ve been well-educated and most have a sexual harassment policy in place. However, for the integrated layers of a family-oriented private club operation, this answer needs to be well thought out, documented, and consistently communicated. It is up to the club to decide what they deem as appropriate relationship boundaries between an employee and a member. Remember, a club employee represents your club’s reputation on and off the clock; every angle needs to be considered, not only to protect your club from uncomfortable situations, but also from possible liability issues.

To be considered regarding Interpersonal Relationships Policy between Club Staff and the Membership…

“Working at members’ homes during off hours is not encouraged, and could lead to termination.” Having this stated policy in your Employee Handbook could help reduce the club’s workers’ comp, or may fall under general liability.

“Club Employees are to refrain from discussing political and/or religious viewpoints with members.” I assume we all understand the potential conflict this type of discussion can lead to and the need to impress upon all club staff the potential pitfalls.

Carefully word your policy, because often there are times when having a personal relationship make sense and are beneficial, until one crosses the line. Consult with your HR staff or an outsourced HR Professional on how best to write a policy that works for your club. Some clubs have their employees sign a relationship policy contract upon hire; others include as part of their conflict of interest policy. However you choose, make sure your policies are well-written, consistently communicated, and document signed acknowledgement by the employee that they understand the standards they are to adhere to. Here is an example of a general conflict of interest policy…

A couple more policies we see missed and are important to have documented specifically for private clubs…

“Harassment and Drug & Alcohol.” Most already have this policy for general employment, although extra consideration needs to be applied to this policy for club employees who live on the premises i.e. international employees, seasonal, etc.

“Whistleblower” is another important policy for private clubs to have in place. Federal law prohibits all corporations, including nonprofits, from retaliating against employees who “blow the whistle” on their employer’s accounting practices. Ultimately, you want employees to feel comfortable and safe turning to a trusted member of management for help and confident it can be handled in-house. The alternative is for them to turn to EEOC or DOL, which could trigger a costly and time-consuming investigation.

The key to help ensure your club policy standards are followed through on every level of the organization is to communicate clearly and consistently; no policy is effective if it is practiced inconsistently. Practice reviewing your Club Employee Handbook annually, let it serve as a compass for your team to meet club expectations and most importantly, managers can refer to the handbook to ensure their actions and decisions are consistent with your policies. Plus, should your club happen to face an employee lawsuit one of the most useful documents you can provide in defense, will be a copy of your handbook.

Next week, we will post part two of “should have” items in your Club Employee Handbook to help motivate your team, and ensure compliance; plus, how these items can work to promote your club’s culture and reputation for excellence.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” –Aristotle

Do you need help with your Club Employee Handbook review? We customize handbooks to meet your club culture and needs.

Federal and State requirements as to the length and timing of breaks that you are required to compensate for presents many questions regarding compliance and ensuring employee's adhere to Club policy. Here we will address a few questions on how to compensate for work breaks appropriately.

Remember that many states have specific requirements as to the length and timing of required breaks, so it is important to ensure that you are giving all employees at least the minimum required breaks and that you are compensating for. Federal law requires that any shorter rest periods (5-20 minutes) provided (other than lactation breaks) be compensated. Meal periods (typically lasting at least 30 minutes) serve a different purpose and may be unpaid.

Q: Can we refuse to pay for extended time employee's take on their granted 10 minute paid work breaks?

A: DOL’s internal enforcement manual advises that unauthorized break extensions need not be classified as work time. But here’s the catch: You absolutely must advise employees that:

1. authorized breaks are limited to X minutes;

2. any extension of those breaks is against the rules; and

3. such extensions will be punished through disciplinary action

If you’re having a problem with overextended work breaks, you need not only to adopt a policy like the three-point one detailed here, but also must be able to show in court that you’ve informed employees of it frequently and regularly enough that they are fully aware. Documentation is a key element in following your “Progressive Disciplinary” policy.

Q. May we give different break amounts and schedules to employee's in different departments?

A. You may have different rest and meal periods for employees based on job duties or department, so long as the policy is non-discriminatory, complies with federal and state regulations, and is applied consistently. This may make sense in many situations where employees in different departments have vastly different duties and daily work rhythms, but you should be cognizant of whether it will have a negative impact on morale if employees know that certain departments have more generous break allowances.

Q.What if an employee doesn‘t want a break?

A. The laws are strict: The hard and fast rule is that nonexempt employees must be paid for all hours worked. If a meal break is unpaid, the employee must be able to leave his or her workstation and have that time uninterrupted. As it turns out, uncompensated meal breaks are a frequent basis for class action lawsuits. Tens of thousands of suits have been filed in the last decade under either the FLSA or another state law. Sometimes, conscientious employees deliberately skip the break in order to catch up on their work. But more often, plaintiffs say, an employer prevents them from taking the break. It is automatically deducted from their clocked-in hours by the employer‘s timekeeping system, when the workers often can‘t take the break. This is a common occurrence in hospitality when service needs are constant and fast paced.

Consider that there may be at least three different kinds of breaks: Bona fide meal breaks that are not typically compensated, “short” rest breaks of 20 minutes or less that are typically compensated, and other kinds of breaks—neither meal breaks nor short rests but including lactation breaks—which may or may not be compensated. Many employers assume that when an employee stretches a 10-minute to 20 minutes, FLSA doesn’t allow the extra time to be treated as non compensable.

(Labor, 2010)The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Affordable Care Act”) amended section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) to require employers to provide reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk. Employers are also required to provide a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk. The break time requirement became effective when the Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010.

Minimize your liability. We provide customize handbooks to meet your industry culture and needs. Clare Vazquez, HR Business Partner has been developing customized handbooks for over 15 years.

Recently, we hosted a webinar presentation for our Clients to see how ClubPay’s reporting enhancements can be utilized to easily comply with upcoming ACA requirements; plus we addressed the most Frequently Asked Questions our Client Service Team has received from Clubs regarding common compliance concerns. To help ensure awareness of this information for our ClubPay Clients and other Clubs who may be interested, we put together a summary of our discussion, plus examples of the ClubPay ACA compliance reports shown. We hope you find this information helpful and welcome you to download our webinar summary discussion here: How to Leverage ClubPay Systems for Compliance.

After controversy, debate, and delays, the Employer Mandate has arrived. This provision of the Affordable Care Act (also known as the “Play or Pay” provision) requires all employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees to offer a certain level of health insurance coverage at an affordable rate to all full-time employees or face a possible penalty.

Large employers (those with 100 or more full-time equivalent employees) that do not comply with the Employer Mandate may begin incurring penalties in each month of the 2015 tax year. Midsized employers (those with 50-99 full-time equivalent employees) enjoy an additional year of reprieve (to 2016) as long as the organization did not reduce its workers’ hours/workforce to get below the 99 employee threshold without a bona fide reason or materially reduce its health care plan as it existed on February 9, 2014. Employer Mandate penalties are incurred on a monthly basis, but paid annually.

It’s important to note that the IRS will only apply Employer Mandate penalties to an organization if the employer is subject to the Employer Mandate, fails to comply with the Mandate, and has at least one full-time employee shop in the Marketplace and receive a federal premium subsidy. Employers have no control regarding whether a full-time employee opts to shop in the Marketplace, so the only fool-proof way to avoid penalties is to follow these three steps:

Offer at least one such plan to all full-time employees regularly working 30 or more hours per week and their dependent children.

If you follow these three steps, your organization will be immunized from any type of Employer Mandate Penalties, regardless of which employees opt to shop in the Marketplace or what types of premium subsidies they receive.

With the implementation of the Employer Mandate new IRS reporting requirements arise. Employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees must begin Section 6056 (Employer Mandate) reporting for the 2015 tax year. These forms will be filed with the IRS and provided to employees in early 2016. Although the actual reporting will not be performed until early 2016, some of the data included in the reporting must be classified by month. So now is the time to begin tracking this data.

Employers subject to the reporting requirements must complete and submit one Transmittal Form (IRS Form 1094-C) for the organization and one Employee Statement (IRS Form 1095-C) for each employee. Employers that sponsor a self-funded health plan have additional reporting requirements. The IRS draft forms are available in ClubPay’s Online HR Support Center.

Anxiety is understandably high in regard to both the Employer Mandate and the new IRS reporting requirements associated with the Mandate. The penalties have the potential to be substantial for some employers, and the regulations are somewhat tedious and technical. Some anxiety can be mitigated by reviewing the “Navigating the Employer Mandate” guide in our Online HR Support Center. It provides detailed common-sense instructions on how to comply with the Employer Mandate, including sample penalty calculations, IRS reporting requirements and much more. Your Human Resources Professional and Tax Professional can also be great resources for you.

Recently, we hosted a webinar presentation for our Clients to see how ClubPay’s reporting enhancements can be utilized to easily comply with upcoming ACA requirements; plus we addressed the most Frequently Asked Questions our Client Service Team has received from Clubs regarding common compliance concerns. To help ensure awareness of this information for our ClubPay Clients and other Clubs who may be interested, we put together a summary of our discussion, plus examples of the ClubPay ACA compliance reports shown. We hope you find this information helpful and welcome you to download our webinar summary discussion here: How to Leverage ClubPay Systems for Compliance.

Are you looking for ways to stay abreast of the evolving regulatory environment and ensure compliance with the latest rules? ClubPay has enhanced Human Resource offerings to help.

Last month we held a webinar presentation for our ClubPay Clients to show how ClubPay’s reporting enhancements can be utilized to easily comply with upcoming ACA requirements, and we covered a few of the most Frequently Asked Questions our Client Service Team has received from our Clubs regarding common compliance concerns. To help ensure awareness of the information we covered for our Clients and other Clubs who may be interested, we put together a summary of our discussion, plus examples of the ACA compliance reports shown. We hope you find this information helpful and welcome you to download the webinar summary discussion here: How to Leverage ClubPay Systems for Compliance.

On behalf of all of us at ClubPay, I’d like to express our sincere appreciation for your confidence and loyalty. We are deeply thankful and extend to you our best wishes for a joyous Holiday Season.

When our clients have a need, we care about their concerns and have the expertise to help creatively solve even their most complex Club Payroll and HR challenges. Our ultimate Care is for our client’s success.

Are you looking for ways to stay abreast of the evolving regulatory environment and ensure compliance with the latest rules; ClubPay has enhanced Human Resource offerings to help.

For many employers, sending employees out into the big, wide world to perform their job duties is an everyday occurrence. However, many Club employers are not aware of the situational details that may make time compensable or not compensable for non-exempt employees. Club Employers must consider both state and federal law surrounding travel time pay and then apply the most generous policy to the employee.

Home-to-Work and Work-to-Home Travel – Employers are not obligated to pay an employee for their time spent commuting no matter how far away they live. If it’s part of their normal commuting time, it’s unpaid.

Worksite to Worksite Travel – If an employee must travel in order to accomplish the day’s work this time counts as paid time. This is common for service and maintenance employees.

One-Day Travel to Another City – Should an employee travel to and return from another city in a workday, that time counts as hours worked. However, the employer is not required to count the time that an employee would normally be commuting to their regular worksite.

Overnight Travel – When an employee travels overnight on company business, hours spent traveling over the employee’s normal work hours generally count as compensable time (no matter what day of the week the employee traveled on).

It is key for employers to understand that the obligation for keeping track of hours worked for a non-exempt employee lies with the employer under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Most employers will pass this duty off to their employees. That, however, does not release the employer from its duty. If an employer had reason to know that an employee was working though the time was not recorded, the employer is obligated to pay for that time actually spent working.

In order to avoid confusion and misunderstandings, we recommend having a written policy on travel time pay that is distributed it to employees. Employers may also safeguard themselves from preventable issues if they go over the policy with an employee prior to the employee embarking on company travel. If the employee will not have access to the company’s time clock system while traveling, employers should provide them with a timesheet to record their hours as they are worked.

In addition to travel time pay, many employers get hung up on the many details surrounding employee travel. Below are a few of those issues and what obligations an employer has to its employees.

Per Diem – Per diems are generally optional for employers. Travel time pay still applies when a per diem is provided.

Mileage Reimbursement – Employers who provide a mileage reimbursement for maintenance, wear and tear on an employee’s vehicle must also pay the employee for the travel time. We typically recommend the standard IRS rate, which is currently 56 cents per business mile driven.

Different Travel Time Rate – A different rate of pay for travel is allowed so long as the rate is not less than minimum wage. This should be clearly communicated in writing prior to the beginning of the travel.

Calculating Overtime – An employer must count travel hours when calculating overtime pay for a workweek.

Wage and hour problems occur when an employer isn’t familiar with their pay obligations for non-exempt travel time pay. Knowing that compensation for travel time depends on the kind of traveling the employee is doing and when the travel time takes place, can help an employer avoid expensive omissions from an employee’s pay.

When our clients have a need, we care about their concerns and have the expertise to help creatively solve even their most complex Club Payroll and HR challenges. Our ultimate Care is for our client’s success.

Join us for our upcoming webinar demonstration to see how ClubPay handles some of the most Frequently Asked Questions regarding common compliance concerns we hear from our Club clients. We will discuss how to easily manage Automatic Gratuities, the difference between Tips or Service Charges and show how to calculate overtime wages for tipped employees. Plus, we’ll cover some crucial year-end tips to incorporate now and information you need to know to prepare for 2015 ACA requirements. Register to attend: Thursday, November 20th at 2:30pm EST.

Are you looking for ways to stay abreast of the evolving regulatory environment and ensure compliance with the latest rules; ClubPay has enhanced Human Resource offerings to help.

I’m going out on a limb here to share my personal experience on a summer project I was tasked with and how working with people who Care, made what I thought was impossible, possible. Typically, I post Club Management and HR Education articles on behalf of ClubPay; however today, my hope is by sharing a few insights of my project journey some might resonate to help with your next Club project. The first step to implement any successful project starts with people who Care to help you through.

How do people who Care, define Care?

Care is a simple four letter word so often misinterpreted and misused by our youth’s vernacular. A great example of this is expressed in “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Word Crime parody: Like “I could care less.” That means you do care, at least a little. I predict if you approached someone right now and asked them to define Care they would need a moment to answer and if you asked five people to define Care, their answers would all differ.

Google Defines Care: noun1) the provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something 2) serious attention or consideration applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or risk.Care: verb1) feel concern or interest; attach importance to something. 2) look after and provide for the needs of.

How I define -People who Care: encompass the noun and the verb definition of Care, plus Attitude. Michael Crandal best defines Attitude, “Attitude is knowledge or experience, but with emotional impact.”

People who Care make a difference.

Working in the Private Club Industry, most of you already know the importance of having people who care employed at your Club. Clubs are a place where members go because they know they’ll be cared for. However, there are a lot of companies we do business with who don't seem to get the "Care" concept with their customer projects, leaving unrealized benefits and frustrating transitions.

I was fortunate to work with a company whose Care helped me through our ClubPay video reanimation project this summer and because of their "Care Attitude” they met our nearly impossible objectives with ease.

I tried to convince our Video Project Director at Richter10.2 Media Group, there was no way they could possibly meet our team’s multiple demands for a successful video without starting from scratch. He patiently listened to my rant, agreed our agenda would be no easy task, but felt it was a challenge they could meet and their ultimate goal was for me to have a final product I’d be proud to share with our team.

Throughout the editing project stages, their people encompassed a Care Attitude, taking the time to listen and implement outrageous suggestions even when they knew a suggested change wouldn’t have a desired result, and then were quick to implement a better way to achieve our desired end goal. With their Care, a project I had dreaded became a wonderfully successful experience and resulted in a ClubPay video that I am proud to share.

There is an incredible opportunity for those of us who do Care and you can see a CareAttitude shine at the most successful Clubs. Care is shown in the details; quality of meals, condition of the Club and grounds, the smile and personal greeting from the server. People like to be around and do business with people who Care about them. From my experience of working on both sides, 1) assisting ClubPay clients with their Employee Management projects, and 2) being a client of an outsourced service project; my word of advice for your next Club project is to partner with a company whose people Care to help you through.

When our clients have a need, we care about their concerns and have the expertise to help creatively solve even their most complex Club Payroll and HR challenges. Our ultimate Care is for our client’s success.

Join us for our upcoming webinar demonstration to see how ClubPay handles some of the most Frequently Asked Questions regarding common compliance concerns we hear from our Club clients. We will show how to easily manage Automatic Gratuities, the difference between Tips or Service Charges and show how to calculate overtime wages for tipped employees. Plus, we’ll cover some crucial year-end tips to incorporate now and information you need to know to prepare for 2015 ACA requirements. Register to attend: Thursday, November 20th at 2:30pm EST.

Are you looking for ways to stay abreast of the evolving regulatory environment and ensure compliance with the latest rules; ClubPay has enhanced Human Resource offerings to help.

Use of available background information in your Club’s hiring and employment decisions is critical to its success. However and very importantly, there is an ever-evolving minefield of legal risk associated with the use of background information when qualifying a candidate. During this hiring season, it is a good time to examine your current processes and be aware of what you can and cannot do with respect to background checks and information.

The practice of securing background reporting information is compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) as long as the employer discloses to the applicant, in writing, that the report may be obtained for employment-related purposes. The FCRA requires not only notice to and consent from applicants/employees before doing a background check, but also requires notice to the applicant who is rejected based on the results of such a check, both before and immediately after the rejection decision is made. The employer is required to follow an “adverse action procedure,” which includes sending the candidate a pre-adverse action notice, a copy of the consumer report, a final adverse action notice and a summary of rights under the FCRA.

When do Background Checks Cross the Line?

The EEOC requires that all background checks be “job-related” and “consistent with business necessity.” For example, it is reasonable for a financial sector employer to conduct a credit history check on a job candidate. Also, the EEOC has established guidance for employers with respect to the use of criminal history information; the guidance differentiates between arrests and criminal convictions. The guidance disallows employers from basing hiring decision on an applicant’s arrest record; the conviction record is the only criteria that may be considered. An employer can consider a criminal conviction in employment disqualification or termination decisions but it must show that the conviction is “job related and consistent with business necessity”.

When is a Criminal Conviction Disqualification “Job Related and Consistent with Business Necessity”?

EEOC Guidance Says There Are Two Ways For Employer to Establish:

(1) SCIENTIFIC/EXPERT VALIDATION--The employer validates the criminal conduct exclusion for the position in question in light of the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (if there is data or analysis about criminal conduct as related to subsequent work performance or behaviors); or

(2) TARGETED SCREEN--The employer develops a targeted screen when considering disqualification/termination because of a criminal conviction, Employer must consider:

(1) Nature/Gravity of the Offense

(2) Time since conviction and/or completion of sentence;and

(3) Nature of the job sought or held

Extreme caution must use when basing an employment decision on an employee’s credit score or history too. While the federal law allows employers to use an applicant’s credit history in the employment application process as long as doing so is job-related and consistent with business necessity, this practice may not be compliant with your state law. Ten states currently have adapted limitations on the use of credit information for employment selection purposes. Also, Federal law does not prohibit employers from inquiring about criminal convictions on an employment application. However, ten states have passed legislation disallowing employers from asking about criminal convictions on job applications; also known as “ban the box”.

Ultimately, Club’s should assess the specific role for which it is hiring and the relevance of an individual’s criminal or credit history information in making its employment selections. This will aid in determining the necessity for conducting the background checks on specific roles engaged in working with the public or financials and provide an opportunity to ensure your Club’s employee handbook is consistent with federal and state regulatory employment laws.

Background Checks Best Practices

Eliminate/Revise policies or practices that automatically exclude people from employment based on any criminal record.

Review your handbook with a professional HR or Employment Law expert to ensure policies are compliant with Federal and State employment laws.

Document and be consistent in handling criminal convictions.

Train managers, hiring officials, and decision makers about the use of criminal background information and employment discrimination.

Keep information about applicants’ and employees’ criminal records confidential. Only use it for the purpose for which it was intended.

Now more than ever, all employers who seek or use background information face an increasing number of potential claims, we’ve covered a couple of potential pitfalls in this article, however there is an ever-evolving minefield of legal risk associated with background information. To help navigate away from some of the most common legal pitfalls, download our complimentary white paper from ClubPay’s HR Education Seminar presented by HR and Legal experts to bring awareness of what a Club can and cannot do with respect to background information, and provide practical guidance for avoiding legal claims associated with background checks.